Finally it is time to celebrate the world wide holiday again!

The smell of cotton candy, small children running around happily, clowns and artists showing their talent. Parks full of lanterns, music and colourful clothes worn by all the citizens!

Fire-breathers, sword-swallower, Demon Bashing and shoot the religious!

Oh, and don't forget horny teenagers doing it in the bushes.

May the UMA praise these dutifully individuals!

So you didn't figure out what Holiday I'm talking about?

The Unification Day obviously!

The attraction this year you wonder?

The Power Armour Parade!

Yes, you heard and read correctly! There will be real Power Armours parading through our streets!

So what is a Power Armour and how came it into existence?

The Power Armour is an addition of the 40ies into the DCF and comes nowadays in a huge varieties, depending on the needs of the environment.

The Power Armour, short PA, was already the dream of the military brass, scientists and sci-fi fans for decades, only now we are finally able to deploy a fully operational suit for military use.

The biggest problem generations of scientists faced when trying to develop this was to get the perfect mix between mobility, protection, boost and energy supply, not to mention weight.

For decades the slow progression in research regarding materials and energy storage hindered a proper breakthrough for this dream. This was caused by the limited funding of the private sector and even whole countries before the Demon Invasion Area.

Only with the UMA and the full cooperation of the whole world and the nearly unlimited resources this dream was pushed forward and finally brought to fruition.

All Hail the UMA!

Even though now we are finally able to build a PA, the immense amount of resources it takes to only build one is the biggest reason it isn't in widespread use.

The amount of rare earth metals it consumes is just staggering and prohibits a wasteful use of these valuable assets.

Around 90% of these suits are only used for the defence of the Academies world wide and stored away, only used to train soldiers and in cases of emergency.

The use of the other 10% varies widely and depends on the General of the respective country.

So what makes these Power Armours so great?

It is simply their fighting ability a normal human gains from them.

Their physical abilities are increased up to be at least able to match Low class Demons.

Depending on the abilities of the “driver” they might even be able to match a High class Demon.

This might sound great at first, but you should remember that these are the most common Demons and often appear in such numbers that the few PAs rarely turn the tide.

If so, why even bother to build and use them?

Something is still better than nothing!

Every bit of fighting power and defence we can gain matters!

Even the smallest drop can turn this tide in our favour!

So, dear citizens, donate for a brighter future!

Donate for the survival of mankind!

To Mankind!

All Hail our Lord General Mark Winter!

-Article in “UK News”, 2053.06.23, Nigel Richhards

---Time: 2054.08.13, 1:06---

---Location: Europe, Scotland, Hamilton, DCF, Hamilton Academy---

---Population estimated: 75.500(rappidly declining, estimation 62.000)---

---Estimated Threat: B: Big Demon-Incursion; multiple Dimension rips: Demon Slaves, Demon Hounds, Demon Bats, Demon Wyvern, Low to High class Demons, Elite class Demons(unconfirmed), Low to High class Demon Lords

---Ragnar Rok, currently teacher---

Explosions, screams, the clash of metal against metal and the tearing of flesh are all over the place.

Roars of hate and anger can be heard and the leaking bloodlust ever present.

War cries, cries of defiance, determination, pain, horror and desperation are all intermingled.

The earth trembles and shakes as one explosion after another rocks the ground. Suddenly another hole in the defense wall of the academy appears and small chunks of concrete rain down, together with some flesh, the origin undiscernable.

Shit, if this continues I'm not sure I'm able to reach the bunker in time.

The damn storage hall is at the exact opposite end from the bunker on this campus.

I'm in my Armour form, running just fast enough for my class to keep up with me.

I'm constantly looking back at them to confirm they can keep up with me.

In my arms are the four most tired of my students.

If I wouldn't carry them we would be another 1 or 2 km away from our damned destination.

“Come on you damn maggots! Give it your all! Push yourself to the maximum!

Will yourself to move faster! Every bit counts!

For a brighter future!

For Mankind!

Onwards!”-I

I scream at them and urge them with everything at my command, but it is clear they are tired and are ready to break any moment now.

Their mental and physical limits were already exhausted when we reached the Academy after the school trip and right now I'm demanding something from them like never before while death tired.

They huff and puff, some clearly ready to give up any moment now, while others apparently get a last boost of strength from my words.

Or the the fear and adrenaline.

The only thing that keeps them running is the eminent danger of death looming over them.

Or from all around them to be more exact.

The Demons are closing in from all directions, no matter where you look.

You might not yet see them, but I know it, I can feel them.

I turn around a corner and a single Low class Demons runs into my direction.

Before he has any chance to react my foot shoots up, shatters his head and I take the next step with the same foot.

All of this happened in less than a second and the dead body is out of the way.

Luckily it was only one, more and it would have taken me considerably more time to slaughter my way through them.

I'm not even sure I would be able to defend my students against a horde of them.

Not because they are strong, but because of the amount they usually come in.

I wonder where it's buddies are, better not test my luck.

The whole Academy right now is a battlefield.

Fires, rubble, dead bodies, blood, destroyed buildings.

I don't want to know how Hamilton looks like, probably like a painting from hell.

I doubt we are even able to defend it.

Probably all our forces are concentrated on defending the Academy.

We cross a field and to our left I see Demon Slaves, Demon Hounds, Demon Bats and Low class Demons, led by a Low class Demon Lord fight against countless normal soldiers.

Some Power Armours are visible in between them, wielding Hellsteel-Blades.

The thing that makes normal soldiers able to hold the line is their ammunition, nothing else.

It's core is still lead, but it is covered in a thin layer of Hellsteel, making it possible to kill Demons with it.

I see them struggling alone due to the huge numbers.

Why not equip every soldier and human with this ammunition you might wonder.

Well, Hellsteel is just so rare and valuable and needed for many things that the demand is always huge, but the supply just so tiny that it never really suffices to even slightly still it's hunger.

Just as Power Armours are used as last defense line for the Academy, so is this special ammunition.

I look back at my class.

“Just another 500m and we will be at the bunker.

Keep it up!”-I

The smell of blood and death reaches me for the umpteenth time and I fight to keep my vision as clear as possible. Suddenly a shrill shriek pierces the noise of battle and I see something similar like a small dragon closing in on us.

Fuck! A Wyvern!

It is still a few hundred meters up in the air and away from us, but it did spot us.

We are out in the open and are running.

Movement attracts the most attention and we are a large group which looks defenceless.

“RUN!”-I

My students start to panic and their body puts the last bit of energy it has left into the sprint.

Still the distance is just to great to reach the destination in time.

The small dragon closes in fast and I drop the four students I'm carrying around on the ground.

Without a word they pick themselves up and start sprinting towards the bunker.

The Wyvern is still two seconds away and I take a stance with my claymore behind me, ready to swing it with all my might against the dragon.

I doubt it will take any significant damage.

It's scales are hard enough to stop everything under the power of an a A rank and I'm nowhere close to that. I probably would be with an Controlle, maybe even an S rank.

Before the Wyvern finally reaches me a small missile appeares out of nowhere and hit its head, the small explosion blows off half it’s head.

The monster hasn't even time to scream in pain and just crashes to the ground, causing a small tremor.

I don't take any chances and stab with my sword in the open wound, right into the brain, just enough to make sure it really is dead, you never know with these creatures.

The Wyvern doesn’t react, no shivers, no spasm or whatsoever, so it is death.

Before I start to sprint after my class I take another look at the soldiers fighting the demons to a standstill for now. The body count for the demons seems to be much higher than for the human soldiers.

It probably has something to do with the demons only charging with swords, while our soldiers have rifles.

But there is one thing that favours them and that is their numbers.

For every demon that falls another two continue to charge forward, while the soldiers don't get any reinforcements.

I seriously doubt that they will hold out much longer, they will be overrun in a few minutes.

Can't help them now, first I need to bring my students to safety.

So annoying.

Not having this responsibility would allow me to just simply let lose and charge these demons.

I grit my teeth, dissolve my sword and run after my class.

After a split second I catch up the ones in the front.

I can see the plaza where the entrance into the bunker is and the amount of dead bodies.

Most of the first and second highschool year students are dead, their bodies and parts of them are strewn around the plaza, only some are still standing, while the third years are seemingly all still alive.

Some dead Low to High class Demons are decorating the plaza with their organic matter in a spectacular way.

For a second I'm stunned by the beauty and brutality of the scene.

The shine of the fires plunges everything in a yellow-reddish shine.

Constant flickering of the fires and explosions immediately changing the shadows thrown on the surrounding buildings and faces.

One second something is swallowed by darkness, the next second it is burned up by the flowing lights of the blaze. The armoured faces of the Completes are changing from those of bloodthirsty Demons in one second, to those of stoic stone-faced heroes in the next second.

Darkness and damnation or light and death, these two options seem the only available ones. Which one to chose?

All the blood and body parts cover the plaza in something like a red and black carpet.

The whole scene could be the painting of some insane artist.

My quick look over the plaza tells me, that I’m not enough to safely escort my students to bunker.

Just running through some demons and killing them without the need to care about some objective is the best while fighting, but I don’t have this luxury now.

“Some third-years over to me! Form a protective circle formation around my class!”

A second afterwards the first few are already on their way, our foes close behind them.

They are not entirely stupid, they realize that if we try to protect something that means it’s worth destroying or killing it.

As soon as the circle formation is complete we slowly move towards the bunker.

It feels like an eternity until we reach the bunker.

Luckily for us there are so far mostly just Middle Class and some High Class Demons, no Elite Demons or Demon Lords.

I wouldn’t stand a chance against them and I’m pretty sure the third years would have a fair amount of trouble.

The hot shower of blood spraying on my armour feels satisfying and arousing.

I guess my mind reached a new level of insanity.

At the same time the corners of my vision are already in a deep red and with every passing hearth beat it creeps a bit further.

When we finally arrive the heavy metal doors slowly open and my class hurry inside.

Only Mikaila looks back at us for a second before she hurries in last.

“Is that the last class?”-I

“Yes, we were only waiting for you to arrive. What the hell took you so long?”-Third-year

“We were at the other end of this god damn campus. We were lucky to not run into any real fight. So, for how long will the air last if we seal them now?”-I

“12 hours. Reinforcements mostly from HQ in London and some other places are already on their way, they will reach in another 20 minutes or so.”

I say nothing further, holding out 20 minutes might not sound like a long time, but on a battlefield it is an eternity. The biggest problem we so far have is the endless stream of demons, kill one and another dozen already takes it place.

Damned demon spawn!

They must have a Dimension rip somewhere close on the campus, otherwise they would be stopped by our main fighting force.

As I fight I snarl, scream and growl at my foes.

Most of them don’t seem too impressed and just snarl back.

I swing my claymore with more force than speed and mostly just behead the demon or slice them apart. The closeness of the fight forbids any wide swings and so I mostly just make overhead swings, killing systematically like a machine.

My rage boils and gives me strength, their weak attempts at blocking or deflecting smashed aside by brute force.

All the blood and guts make the stone on the ground really slippery, but luckily I don’t need to move much.

Suddenly the third-years talks to me again.

“Command finally found the Dimension rips close by and ordered us to close them. We just have one problem: we need to keep the demons busy. One squad will stay behind to protect the bunker, while the other two squads will adavance, kill the Low Class Demon Lords and close the Dimension rips.”

I can guess his intentions, I’m supposed to be the bait, but that is fine with me, not like I could hold back much longer.

“Where do you want me?”-I

His voice sounds a bit surprised by my swift positive response.

“You see that way between the main building and the library? If you can hold that for long enough we can come around after we close the first two Dimension rips and pick you up for the third. It is right between both of them, so you stop the main advance of them.”

There is roughly 30 metres between both buildings.

“I doubt I can plug that whole alone, the space allows for lot of demons to just ignore and get past me.”-I

“Depends on how fast you kill them, but even if you only stop half of them that would already be enough.”-third-year

I think a second before I answer. This is our best shot we have without reinforcements.

“Fine, I will go. Just one thing: don’t pick me up afterwards. I’m not sure I can tell you apart from them at that time.”

It takes a moment before the third-year answers again.

“So the rumours are true? Of you going berserk? Well, fight and die with honour.

For the glory of mankind! GO!”

I turn on my music, step out of the formation and let lose.

The chain in my mind snaps, my red aura burst forth from me and burns the demons too close to me.

I start laughing like a mad man and butcher my way through whatever is in front of me.

I try to hang on to whatever tiny flame of reason is left in my until I reach my destination.

The speed and force with which I plough trough my hated enemy really helps reaching it.

After maybe a few minutes I reach my destination.

The bass rocks my whole body, while I swing my claymore in wide arcs.

Wide swings, no matter how fast, always leave you open and I get the expected results from this: hits and pain. The attackers pay with their live, my red aura burning them to ashes.

Every movement of my blade pulls a spray of black and red blood after it.

After a short moment there is so much blood in the air that it seems to literally rain blood.

My vision is nothing but a red mist and my hate burns in my veins giving me the needed speed and strength to hit close to no resistance.

I don’t know how long I already fight, but I realize that I stand on a mountain of corpses. Hopefully demon corpses, but in my blood frenzy I’m unable to discern between the two, nor do I really care.

Blood is covering me from head to toe, some of it mine but most of it from my enemies.

As I fight on I suddenly hit a hard resistance before I hit a bit of flesh.

My vision slowly starts to clear a bit, but before I can even see what I just hit I’m sent flying.

The moment I land I hear loud breaking noises and feel extreme pain.

I must have landed on my left arm and crushed it.

I slowly get up and look back the direction I came from.

My vision is now clear enough to make out my enemies and my blood frenzy tuned down a bit for the moment.

A good 20m away from me stand Elite Demons.

The most feared enemy on the battlefield.

From head to toe they wear heavy, black plate armour and beneath it chainmail, leaving nothing unprotected.

In their left hand they carry a huge rectangular shield, starting close over ground and ending at the height of their chin. In their right hand they carry a wide variety of weapons, from the obvious sword, to warhammers and chained morningstars and all other kinds of weapons, some never seen in the history of mankind.

Their weapons and armour are plastered with brightly shining runes, making it obvious they get the best weapons and armour possible.

All of them emit a red aura like mine, forcing you to not get to close to them or suffer the consequence.

Every single one of them is ranked between a Low and Middle Class Demon Lord.

Nothing to worry about you might think, but they are basically the biggest threat you will face most of the time. A Middle Class Demon Lord might need a S ranked Squad to swiftly taken out and the Elites are beneath that and most normal Squads can eventually kill a Low Class Demon Lord the problem is: they are single combatants.

The Elites often come in huge numbers, numbering into the hundreds, and they do fight perfectly together as a unit.

Anything ranked as high as a Middle Class Demon Lord or above is rarely seen on the battlefield.

I have no idea of how many there are, but it must be at least 50.

As I slowly get up and walk towards them I look up into night sky.

It rains, I have no idea when it started and it doesn’t really matter.

This will be my last fight, I don’t have any chance against them, even buying a minute or two is an overly optimistic guess.

I let out the most powerful war cry I can and most likely my last.

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!”

The Elites don’t even seem bothered and just continue to walk slowly forward, a synchronous marching of heavy metal boots hitting blood soaked stone.

I rush at them with everything I have and for once I even realize my stupidity, but there is nothing else I can do in my state.

As I swing my claymore overhead, my enemy just lifts his shield and simply deflects my attack.

At the same time his Morningstar hits my left shoulder and I’m sent flying, again.

This time I land just 5 metres away, but before I can even get the demon steps on me.

My breast plate slowly curves in under the heavy pressure of his foot, while he crushed my right arm with his shield.

I howl in pain and hatred and try to get up.

I mobilize every last bit of strength I have left, I scream in defiance, but to no avail.

Even the power of my blood frenzy isn’t enough to overpower him and get up.

The only thing that does happen is my breast plate giving in. With every inch I try to get up my armour curves deeper into itself. With every inch I howl in pain and spit blood.

I’m pretty sure that the armour of a Complete wouldn’t just give in to this pressure.

My visions loses its read colour the longer I struggle and my strength leaves my body.

The demon just watches, giving no sign to his emotions, either it be amusement, satisfaction or interest.

My consciousness slowly fades away and even Alice’s words can’t give me strength anymore.

The last I see is how the demon’s head is suddenly pierced and then I fell somebody grabs me by my shoulders.